Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Either way, it's starting to look like this isn't a mirage -- something real and important has happened, and thus it would be worthwhile to understand what's going on.
Here are some thoughts on the potential focus of a new thread, or future discussions in this thread.
Topic 1. What is the true scope of this change?
At the narrow end of the spectrum, perhaps Google is targeting a very narrowly defined business plan or a very specific type of arbitrage site -- with little or no real content, using Adwords to obtain traffic and using Adsense to generate revenue.
At wide end of the specturm, this might be an early sign that Google is going to stamp out any business plan that adversely affects public perceptions of its Adwords and Adsense brands.
To enhance and protect its Adsense brand, Google could stop running Adsense on scraper sites, little-to-no-content sites, sites with mostly nonsense text, etc.
To enhance and protect its Adwords brand, Google block these types of sites from running Adwords campaigns, even if they generate their revenues using affiliate programs, display ads, YPN, etc.
Topic 2: What will be the indirect effect of this change on other publishers and advertisers -- those who are not being kicked out of Adsense?
Topic 3: How should webmasters adjust their strategies and business plans, in response to the change and in anticipation of the indirect effects of the change?
There's been some discussion and speculation about all 3 of these topics already, but a more in-depth, thoughtful analysis could be developed if we pool our collective knowledge and insights.
Of course, these 3 topics are related, since future effects and future strategies will depend on what's really going on -- the true scope of this change.
Unless I'm mistaken, there hasn't been any sort of official confirmation/announcement from Google on anything major happening as of June 1st.
Would you expect Google to make a formal public announcment that it's disabling certain types of accounts? Given the fact that click arbitrage and MFAs are below the radar with the general public (and probably with most AdSense advertisers who don't frequent sites like Webmaster World), it wouldn't make a lot of sense for Google to make a big deal about its housekeeping. (Would you expect a hotel to announce, "We're bringing in an exterminator to kill all of our bedbugs on June 1"?)
Anyone who thinks this thread is based on unsupported rumors might want to go back and read the first page or two of Part 1 at:
[webmasterworld.com...]
In any case, we're less than eight hours into June 1 (Google time), so it may be a while before we can see whether Google is eliminating the bedbugs en masse or just squashing a few with its corporate thumb.
I see some of these arbitragers are now showing Yahoo Ads, and some of them are with parking companies.
Since they still have their adwords account, they are still able to do their stuff, now with other PPC programs.
So, just a few to delete from my filter.
Would you expect Google to make a formal public announcment that it's disabling certain types of accounts?
I really haven't considered whether or not I would expect Google to make an announcement.
My point is Google hasn't made an announcement, yet this thread and other reports have generated a lot of expectations that June 1st was going to be a magical day. I'm simply reminding everyone that that expectation isn't based on any solid information.
...Anyone who thinks this thread is based on unsupported rumors might want to go...
Again, you're twisting my words.
I believe some people got an email from Google about their business model no longer being acceptable.
However, with that said, these threads are largely written by anonymous posters and a number of the people in these threads have "New User" beside their monikers. That's a lot closer to unsupported rumor than confirmed fact.
I'll also point out the one person who reported getting some sort of email from Google about a way he could keep his account active after all. Who knows that that was about, I suppose it could have something to do with the junk text that's showing up on some MFA pages, but that's just my speculation.
Regardless of whether it's offical, rumor or something in between, a lot of expectations have been built up.
The deciding factor is the results or lack of results. It's June 1st and people are searching for and expecting results.
FarmBoy
If that is the case, the reason they are disappearing is that they are simply pulling their ads. Hell, I'd be willing to bet a lot of MFA's and arbitragers that learned from their ebooks don't even check their registered email accounts and don't know what's going on.
...so it may be a while before we can see whether Google is eliminating the bedbugs en masse or just squashing a few with its corporate thumb.
Or even working with a few MFA's to teach them how to tweak their pages a bit to make them "acceptable."
Based on how slow (reluctant?) Google has been to address the MFA/misleading ads problem, I'm very skeptical of their willingness/ability to clean house at this point.
I don't think things are going to change significantly until Yahoo or MSN get their act together and give AdSense some real competition. Not until then and only then.
FarmBoy
AdSenseAdvisor
#:3350186 9:42 pm on May 25, 2007 (utc 0)Hi all,
Very interesting conversation.I just wanted to say that while I can't provide any new information right now about the decision to close certain adsense accounts, I am following this thread closely, along with many other people from all parts of the adsense team. This decision was a long time in the making, and your thoughts and feedback are quite valuable to us.
-ASA
I read into this that a decision has been made to close certain accounts that are in the context of this thread.
However, with that said, these threads are largely written by anonymous posters and a number of the people in these threads have "New User" beside their monikers. That's a lot closer to unsupported rumor than confirmed fact.
I can't think of more than a handful of Webmaster World members who aren't anonymous, and people who get bounced from AdSense nearly always have "New user" next to their aliases. Fortunately, we do know that ASA isn't a "New User," and presumably Brett has checked to make sure that ASA is really from Google. :-)
The deciding factor is the results or lack of results. It's June 1st and people are searching for and expecting results.
They'll probably have to wait a while before they (or we) can judge the extent and consequences of the changes. After all, the workday has barely begun at Google, and for all we know, the AdSense team are enjoying a breakfast prepared by a former chef for The Grateful Dead. :-)
Side note: I hope people's expectations won't be too high. Whatever changes Google is making are obviously designed to benefit the network over the long term, not just in the short run. Publishers who have earned most of their revenue from MFA ads (as much as they may hate those ads) could see their earnings get worse before improving.
Absolutely. The reason to care about the quality of your publishers and advertisers is to build confidence. In users, so they'll be more apt to perceive the ads as relevant and click. And in advertisers, so that they'll be more apt to use the content network. That's a gradual process with the benefits coming on the timescale of months or even years.
This thread most be splited from June 1st and forth.
Please mods!
By popular request,
Your June 1st earnings up or down?
May want to check out this thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]
;)
And leave the vitriol at the table please... this is just business as far as I'm concerned. You have your view, I have mine.
(As it should, it's an important topic - based on the # of posts.)
So it's happening.....
Funny though his site is still showing adsense ads.....
heyday
Funny though his site is still showing adsense ads.....
Maybe it takes a while for the account change to propagate to the ad servers (which respond to "gimme an ad" requests from the publisher's pages).
On 17th of last month there were 14 site in yahoo search, scraped with ABG on them.
2 Minutes ago I checked there is 100 More, I went thru a few, all pages have more content, colorful and some even look like real sites.
You know what?... I am almost sure that this was a "Direct blow to the head" to any other Ads System and/OR Search engine.
THE MFA just got MORE Colorful. I am sitting a front of 22" monitor with resolution 1680 x 1050 and looking on brand new style of MFA that covers 90% of viewing area with Ads By Google.
And since all those arb sites are not syphoning off huge amaunts of money there is now more left for the real publishers. Pluss there will be a lot of advertisers coming back to the content network and adding more revenue to the system. Give it a week or three.
Plus the visitors wont be put off clicking ads in the future so click through and ad effectiveness will increase too in time. Good news for all genuine high quality content publishers and advertisers.
most of them gone. time to clear your filter list!
"All the burglars are in jail, time to start leaving your front door unlocked," said the burglar.
Just kidding....well...maybe.
:)
FarmBoy
He tried to login to his Adsense account and gets a "Account Not Active" message. This is what he just forwarded to me....
Account Not Active
An AdSense account does not exist for this login, as it is associated with an unapproved application. For more information about your application, please review the message we sent to the email address you provided with your application.
He SWEARS up and down that he never got an email nor has he ever done arbitrage.
This was totaly out of the blue to him.
This is what I feared...... it is possible that there is some "Friendly Fire" going on.....
heyday
<snip>
[edited by: martinibuster at 3:26 am (utc) on June 2, 2007]
[edit reason] See TOS [webmasterworld.com] . [/edit]
I suppose I know why they have survived, but can't post it on a public forum without being 100% confident.
I have several sites which get several hundred thousand ad impressions a month, CTR is low and I generally earn about 3-10 cents per click (am I allowed to say how many total clicks I get each month?). But I also have two sites designed for clients which had products for sale, only they never paid their bills, so I disabled the shopping cart system and placed Adsense ads to try to make some of my money back. I don't use Adwords or any other program to drive traffic, its all organic results.
Are these the type of sites that are flagged by Google? Clicks from those sites represent about 8% of the overall clicks that my sites provide.
Are these the type of sites that are flagged by Google?
I doubt this obscure situation would be specifically targeted by Google, at least not during this wave.
The actual scope of Google's actions -- both in this initial wave and any future waves that may or may not occur -- is one of the key issues most of us are wondering about.
The pattern behind the initial wave should become a little bit clearer in the next few days, as accounts get disabled, sites start losing their adsense blocks, and arbitragers stop running adwords campaigns.
Still, its going to be a little hard to know what's actually going on since entire accounts are being shut down -- and some of these account holders may have been somewhat diversified.
Thus, for example, some speculate Google is only targeting arbitragers; others think Google is targeting thin/no content sites. If the same account holder has some of each type, they will all be shut down, which makes it harder to know the primary intended "business plan" that was being targeted by Google.
